Samsung: 450mm wafers to become mainstream in 2015

Eighteen-inch wafers will replace 12-inch as the mainstream in 2015, according to Joo-Tai Moon, senior vice president of Samsung Electronics. Moon also noted that Asia is the fastest growing semiconductor market, and will digest 70% of global IC production by the end of 2011.

Moon believes phase-change RAM (PRAM), oxide-based memory and spin-torque-transfer magnetic-random-access-memory (STT-MRAM) will be tomorrow's stars, as these next-generation technologies could all be seen as high-efficiency and low-cost alternatives to today's memory standard.